You gotta love this CP 800, if you are looking for semi receiver like preamp, this one does like the fake stereo in a video game life like Sims3. Its modern, yeah! Pretty neat to have full control over the crossover frequency and a FPGA chip

I wonder how many people need or want the DSP equalizer and subwoofer control? I would rather have seen Classe put the money into better DAC resolution and lower distortion. Yes, this is a nice unit, but I was disappointed with the measurements (irrespective of audability). Jitter rejection, however looks great. Not sure this is an improvement over simply adding something like the Benchmark DAC1 USB to a high quality preamp that you already own, e.g. Mark Levinson 380s plus Benchmark DAC1 USB?

Given the measured performance of this component while using it in "Analog Bypass Mode" and ignoring its audiophile status in terms price would you say someone could use it as a center piece for their audio system in combination with a different external DAC costing many thousands of dollars more (ie..think DCS Vivaldi or MSB Diamond) and not feel that they are sacrificing anything in terms of SQ by feeding such a high brow signal thru it?

I own this unit myself and am considering using a different external DAC (Meitner MA-1 in my case) and was just trying to gauge how a components measured performance "in theory" relates to how it can be used irregardless of cost of other up/down stream components.

Thanks for another great review! I just wanted to get your input on D/A's with volume control that are better than the CP-800. I currently have the cp-800 as a pre-amp/dac but have become annoyed by the edginess/shoutiness it introduces to the sound at louder volumes. Since I'm all digital, I think it may be more prudent to spend $4-5k on a amazing dac rather than a pre-amp. If it helps, my cp-800 goes into a pass x250.5 and then into T+A Criterion 110s speakers. Thank you!